Hans Reiser Jury Deliberating Fate of Linux Developer

OAKLAND, California — Jurors in the Hans Reiser murder trial were instructed on the law Tuesday afternoon and have begun deliberating the fate of the Linux programmer accused of killing his estranged wife Nina Reiser and hiding her body.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman told jurors they could acquit the developer of the ReiserFS filesysem or find him guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or voluntary manslaughter. The 12 jurors and two alternatives were not told of the penalties for the convictions, but to reach "a just verdict regardless of the consequences."

First-degree murder in California carries a mandatory 25-to-life term, and requires premeditation and a killing that is intentional and deliberate. Second-degree murder carries a mandatory 15-to-life term and neither requires premeditation nor an intent to kill.

The penalty for voluntary manslaughter, or a killing in the "heat of passion" or "sudden quarrel," is a maximum 11 years. Manslaughter, in this instance, is differentiated from second-degree murder because manslaughter requires that a person kill out of a sense of provocation that arouses "the mind of ordinarily, reasonable" people, Judge Goodman said.

There is no limit to how long a jury can deliberate. If panelists cannot reach a verdict, Goodman will declare a mistrial. Alameda County prosecutors could retry the defendant if they choose. Whether Hans Reiser would remain jailed without bail is uncertain.

The case against the defendant rests largely on circumstantial evidence. The judge told jurors, in Latin, that the body of a crime — that a crime has occurred — or "corpus delicti may be established in its entirety by circumstantial evidence."

Goodman urged jurors not to "let bias, prejudice or public opinion" color their decision.

After about 40 minutes of instructions, jurors were escorted into the jury room. Many were carrying several notepads from notes taken over the course of six months of testimony in a trial that started Nov. 6.

The defendant, minutes after being removed to a holding pen outside the courtroom, screamed: "I want to get something on the record." The bailiff allowed the defendant’s attorney, William DuBois, to go inside and speak with his client. "Why are you screaming," DuBois was overheard as saying.

The 44-year-old defendant claims his wife, at age 31, abandoned the divorcing couple’s two young children after he accused her on Sept. 3, 2006 of embezzling from his Namesys software company. Nina Reiser was last seen that day at her estranged husband’s house in the Oakland hills, where she dropped off their two kids to stay with him the Labor Day weekend.